Renewal in a Natural Woods

by Dr. James St. Clair
Sixth generation descendant of MacFarlane family, Mabou, Nova Scotia, Canada

Editor's note: Herbicide spraying is common in conventional North American forestry, despite the mounting evidence of severe environmental harm and human health impacts associated with this practice. This is the story of an old-growth forest in Canada that is protected from herbicide spraying by its owners.

It is the time of the year when the air on the Island of Cape Breton is full of the scent and sight of trees flowering and budding. In the Forest Preserve of the MacFarlane Woods, two-hundred-year-old maples are dropping their tiny magenta flowers to the forest floor. Ancient yellow birches are beginning their yearly cycle of leafing out.

As I walk in this season, I rejoice particularly in the awareness that all around there is growth from the smallest “spring beauties” to the unfurling “Christmas ferns” to the tallest sugar maples. I feel very welcomed and peaceful.

With a canopy of brightening leaves a hundred feet overhead and a variety of mosses under foot, the MacFarlane Woods Nature Reserve, a remnant of the ancient Acadian Forest, is a tract of three hundred acres of “Old Growth” trees. Never cut over, this section of a six-hundred-acre grant assigned to the MacFarlane Family upon their arrival from Scotland in 1820 is permanently protected by legislation and by the oversight of the Nature Conservancy of Canada .

The white and yellow birches, the ancient beech trees, the maples of every variety, are now a rarity in this area of Nova Scotia . Forestry is a major industry here with an emphasis on growing trees for pulp mills and on clear cutting large tracts. The threat of the Spruce Bud Worm has permitted spraying on lands owned by the Province and managed by the Pulp Mill. The contemporary descendants of the MacFarlane Woods, who see themselves as the stewards of this unusual and treasured inheritance have resisted any use of herbicides or pesticides on their commercial wood lot which adjoins the Reserve even though policies of reforestation encourage the use of such substances. The sturdy woods and the naturally regenerating wood lot are good neighbors to each other, sharing in the seeds from healthy trees and rejoicing in brooks that have no trace of chemicals as they flow to larger streams.

In any season of the year, I invite you to come to walk with me up the moderately steep hill and find renewal (as I do) in the energy provided by a natural wooded area, which is doing its own thing as it has done for generations. No camping, no debris and no chemicals, please—just deep breathing of healthy air, hiking and enjoyment of nature.

Several descriptions are available on the web— “MacFarlane Woods Nature Reserve.” With the protection of a legal easement on their deed, the family descendants have provided protection so that future generations of visitors may rejoice in these living, healthy, chemical-free woods.

More about the MacFarlane Woods Nature Reserve at http://www.gov.ns.ca/enla/protectedareas/nr_macfarlane.asp and http://forests.org/archive/canada/oldgfore.htm.